appleacj loves me

Winter...

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had always loved this time of year in Ponyville. Both remembered that while they may have loved Winter, others didn't, well at least they didn't like the relationship between winter and the two. Applebloom often didn't dry herself up before going to bed, causing Granny Smith and Big Mac to treat her cold for the next few days.  As for Sweetie Belle, she often exasperated Rarity, making her fashion new winter clothes for her since Sweetie Belle always tore her unused clothing for extra fabrics to be used for her school and Cutie Mark Crusader-related projects. Rarity definitely didn't approve of the Cutie Mark Crusader stuff.

Among other things, it didn't allow the vegetables to grow, it slowed down movement, and basically, it was cold.

What made it beautiful for them was because of the snow.

"Out of all the 4 seasons, if you live in a climate that has them, winter is like the cleansing season. It's beautiful to see the cycle of the seasons, especially winter. I love how everything goes dormant, and everything slows down and it's so cozy and white.

But then again, this wasn't Ponyville,

"The best part about

"

"Where are the AirBorn?" another pony cried out.

"Hold The Line"

0900 Hours

Northern Outskirts of Fillydelphia

-20°C

"Chin up, soldier."

Diamond Tiara felt a nudge from a hoof, lifting her head up. She was barely staying awake, even in such freezing conditions.  She turned her head to the soldier opposite of her, sharing the same foxhole. He was a coltgrenadier, who she barely noticed on the truck ride earlier. Her throat was dry but she managed to force out a response.

"Yeah, got it," she said in an indifferent tone. She didn't much care who he was, just another passing face who she'll never see or talk to after this day, whether dead or alive. Like Goalpost said last night, "Temporary fill-ins."

Speaking of 'last night,' since last night, she had little to no sleep. It wasn't because of the artillery shells or gunfire far off in the distance making sounds of 'clattering' that prevented her from sleeping soundly, but it was simply the weather and how unaccustomed she is to sleeping in such destitute conditions. She already had trouble barely falling asleep in the barracks and worse, in campsites or ruined buildings. But now, the cold temperature made it virtually impossible for her to fall asleep. She missed the warm interior of her room back home, Silver Spoon and her would be upstairs talking about the latest fashion and gossiping about their classmates and when it got too cold, they would walk down to where her father was, right by the warm fireplace. Good times, she thought.

Meanwhile, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were setting up the Buzzsaw. Sweetie took a break, laying her back against the icy wall of the foxhole. The foxhole they had dug was slightly deeper and wider than the others, allowing them to use a tripod in the hole to stabilize the recoil and it allowed a crew of three to operate the weapon in the same foxhole. Sweetie Belle, bored, not exhausted, decided to survey the surroundings.

Their foxhole was positioned on the right flank, fourth row. It allowed them to protect the right flank of the entire group.

There were five rows of foxholes, 10 meters apart from each forward row. They all were placed far behind a rather wide gap between a line of trees. From

To her left, Snips and Snails were also prepping up their Buzzsaw though, they seem to be having a little problem with it. They were parallel with them, on the same second row to protect the flanks. Diamond Tiara and some pony were in the first third role. The fifth and last row was

To her right, or their side, the first foxhole was occupied by

Goalpost and two other mares were positioned at the rear, behind a dug-in anti-tank gun. From there, he could shout out orders and provide heavy weapon support behind the ponies in their foxholes. He had placed six lines of defenses, the first and second line being the least equipped and likely to be lost. The third and fifth line were given anti-tank mines while the fourth line were machine gun emplacements to protect the flanks. Lastly, the sixth line was the anti-tank gun.

This was a text book defense strategy that Goalpost and countless other commanding officers have implemented. However, Goalpost wished that he would never resort to having to use it. Placing the his mares in the first two lines, the weakest of all, guaranteed their inevitable deaths while the well situated troops behind will hopefully defeat the now slowed down and weakened enemy. He kept telling himself that if he placed his best in front and lost them, he would lose everypony. It wasn't easy.

Goalpost had distributed an anti-tank mine fo

Everypony watched the fleet of tanks rolling eastwards, attempting to encircle the whole 1st Army and hence, squeeze the 1st Army out of existence, the reason why everypony is here. There were so many tanks that it caused formations of snow clouds blanketing the tanks behind.

...

Fifteen seconds passed by, everypony was tensed.

"Why aren't they turning?" she said, worried. Scootaloo squinted, focusing on the tanks, continuing their single file formation eastwards. It looked suspicious.

"Maybe they know it's a trap," Archer suggested, "If I was leading a tank, I wouldn't go through the wide gap in between those trees and seems perfect for a ambush."

"Well, judging by the number of tanks," she paused, pulling the bolt of her rifle, readying her rifle to fire a new round, "I don't see why they can't just roll over us like a bunch of watermelons under a steamroller."

"Sir?" Steadfast expressing his worries to Goalpost.

"Not yet, lieutenant."

Goalpost was waiting for all five of the tanks to enter the optimal killzone. If they revealed themselves too early, the tanks would wipe them out with their tank cannons from a range where his mares can't hit them with the anti-tank explosives. He needed them to get close enough, unfortunately.

"No, sir. I didn't mean that," Steadfast passed his binoculars to Goalpost and pointed at the edges of the tanks, "there's infantry riding the tanks, sir."

Goalpost lowered his binoculars, his face in dismay, muttering, "Awww buck..."

The tank leading the spearhead did not have infantry riding it and it had yet to open fire. Everypony was unsure whether to let the tanks come closer or to open fire. That decision laid with Goalpost only. The moment he fired the cannon, the rest were allowed to light them up with small arms and explosives. But the leading tank was dangerously closing in on the first foxhole on the left occupied by Snips, Snails, and Lineup.

"I th-th-think we should get out of here, Snails," Snips recommended. By now, the tank was only two dozens yards away.

"We- uhh, should get out as uhh... fast as possible."

Lineup seemed to disagree.

"And get shot on the surface, no wa-" Lineup was cut short for by then, the two had already crawled out, retreating to a row or two behind. Lineup's luck worsened when he turned his attention to the tank, now only a dozen yards away. He panicked and reached for the shovel, desperately trying to dig himself a deeper hole, afraid of being run over.

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle watched as he futilely dug himself his own grave, and the worst part, he didn't know that. And with that, they broke the silence.

"GET OUT OF THERE!!! RUN!!!" they both screamed out.

Lineup stopped shoveling, looking upwards and saw the tank was now a few yards away. Fear now gripped him and without thinking, he grabbed his submachine gun and opened fire on the armored beast to no avail. As the tank reached the tip of the foxhole, he squirmed himself into the backside of the foxhole, hoping it would save him.

Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and the rest of the company saw the tank roll over the foxhole but then it started rotating itself. No pony understood why it did it until they started seeing blood trails being smeared around, coming from the tank tracks. The worst part was the screaming, deafened by the tank's roaring engine.

Chip Mint suddenly snapped after what he just witnessed. He tried jumping out but the two mares to his sides pulled him back in. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!" he begged.

Goalpost couldn't take it anymore, it felt like the tank was mocking him for getting that poor foal killed, rubbing it in his face with Lineup's blood.

"FIRE!!!"

The ponies in the foxholes heard a huge thud from behind, followed by the sound of two metals hitting one another. That tank soon was engulfed in flames. It had begun.

Every riflemare and submachine-gunner opened fire on the following tanks, aiming at the infantry riding on top. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom waited for the infantry to jump off. As soon as they did from the left side of the second tank, the two opened fire on them, cutting them down without giving them a chance.

The Zebras that got off on the right side were relatively unharmed. They went around the tank to get cover from the machine-gun fire. They then went on to finish what their dead squadmates had tried to do, they quickly overran the foxhole in front of Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, swarming the two Coltgrenadiers and killing them in their foxholes.

Snips and Snails crawled on the icy snow, feeling bullets flying over head from Diamond Tiara's foxhole right ahead. She saw the two pitifully trying to move up towards her, their movement hindered by the gunfire.

Archer and Scootaloo picked off the zebras attempting to find cover in the foxhole, Line up w